ABSTRACT Virtual reality (VR) allows for the creation of ecological environments that could be used for cognitive assessment and intervention. This study comprises two parts that describe and assess an immersive VR task, the Virtual Shop, which can be used to measure episodic memory. Part 1 addresses its applicability in healthy older adults by measuring presence, motivation, and cybersickness symptoms. Part 2 addresses its construct validity by investigating correlations between performance in the VR task and on a traditional experimental memory task, and by measuring whether the VR task is sensitive to age-related memory differences. Fifty-seven older and 20 younger adults were assessed in the Virtual Shop, in which they memorised and fetched 12 familiar items. Part 1 showed high levels of presence, higher levels of motivation for the VR than for the traditional task, and negligible cybersickness symptoms. Part 2 indicates that memory performance in the VR task is positively correlated with performance on a traditional memory task for both age groups, and age-related differences were found on the VR and traditional memory tasks. Thus, the use of VR is feasible in older adults and the Virtual Shop is a valid task to assess and train episodic memory in this population.

中文翻译：

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使用沉浸式虚拟现实来评估情景记忆：老年人的验证研究

摘要 虚拟现实 (VR) 允许创建可用于认知评估和干预的生态环境。本研究包括描述和评估沉浸式 VR 任务 Virtual Shop 的两个部分，该任务可用于测量情景记忆。第 1 部分通过测量存在感、动机和网络病症状来说明其在健康老年人中的适用性。第 2 部分通过调查 VR 任务和传统实验记忆任务的表现之间的相关性，以及测量 VR 任务是否对与年龄相关的记忆差异敏感，来解决其结构有效性。在虚拟商店中对 57 名老年人和 20 名年轻人进行了评估，他们记住并提取了 12 种熟悉的物品。第 1 部分显示出高水平的存在，与传统任务相比，VR 的动机水平更高，并且网络病症状可以忽略不计。第 2 部分表明，VR 任务中的记忆表现与两个年龄段的传统记忆任务的表现呈正相关，并且在 VR 和传统记忆任务中发现了与年龄相关的差异。因此，在老年人中使用 VR 是可行的，而虚拟商店是评估和训练该人群情景记忆的有效任务。